​The firm had earlier leased 1.9 lakh sq ft of standalone building owned by the Enam Securities Group in Mumbai’s business district Bandra-Kurla Complex. ​

WeWork India, started in July 2017, has been buying properties aggressively in a bid to expand its presence through a number of facilities.

MUMBAI: New York-headquartered collaborative workspace major We-Work’s India arm has picked up an entire commercial building in Mumbai's Andheri locality on long-term lease, said three persons with direct knowledge of the development. The lease would run for nine years with a clause to reset rentals every three years.

“The deal has already been concluded and the fit-out work is expected to start over the next couple of weeks,” said one of the persons mentioned above.

The building, Vijay Diamond, with over one lakh sq ft carpet area in Andheri’s MIDC locality is spread over two-third of an acre and has a parking facility for around 200 parked cars. ET’s email query to WeWork India remained unanswered until the time of going to press. Text message and calls to the building’s landlord Ajay Shah and transaction adviser property consultancy firm Space Hunters India also did not elicit any response till press time.

WeWork India, started in July 2017, has been buying properties aggressively in a bid to expand its presence through a number of facilities. Currently, it has total 21 operational locations spread over three million sq ft with over 20,000 members.

In September, the firm had picked up an entire commercial building, Zenia, spread over 12 floors, on lease in Hiranandani Estate, Thane. Zenia was the second transaction involving an entire building by WeWork. In May, the company had leased Raheja Platinum spread over ten floors in the Andheri suburb of Mumbai.

The firm had earlier leased 1.9 lakh sq ft of standalone building owned by the Enam Securities Group in Mumbai’s business district Bandra-Kurla Complex. Additionally, it has also leased two buildings in Worli and one lakh sq ft office space in Navi Mumbai.

Coworking, or collaborative offices, is a relatively new concept in India. It involves various individuals, or startups, sharing a common workplace environment and is steadily gaining momentum across prime Indian property markets due to relatively cheaper costs and flexibility.

According to a recent report by property consultant Cushman & Wakefield, in 2018, co-working players leased nearly five million sq ft of space, the highest ever annual leasing recorded for the co-working segment.

Flexible space operators have grown rapidly in the past two years, reaching a total footprint of nearly 40 million sq ft in the first half of 2018 in 16 major Asia-Pacific cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

India is expected to emerge as one of the world’s largest co-working markets by 2022, showed a recent report.

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